The second In Good Company convention features prominent business women like Christy Turlington Burns, Mara Hoffman and Elise Peterson

By

NicoleLyn Pesce

These convention-goers are in good company, all right.

Model and Every Mother Counts founder Christy Turlington Burns, designer Mara Hoffman, Carol’s Daughter founder Lisa Price and fine artist/author Elise Peterson join more than a dozen women business owners headlining the second annual In Good Company conference on Friday. The day-long series of discussion panels and keynote speeches held on the San Francisco waterfront will explore the challenges and triumphs experienced by moms-turned-entrepreneurs.

“I always have felt participation in events like this are important,” Price, 56, told Moneyish. She started her business in her Brooklyn kitchen in 1993, and has raised it along with her three children (now ages 12, 20 and 22.) “I remember being an entrepreneur in the early days of my business, and I felt alone. We had no internet. No social media. So, events such as this told me I wasn’t strange. There are others like me, and they make mistakes, and they don’t have everything all figured out, either.”

But Price and these other mother-led startups are far from alone. In fact, a January survey of more than 2,000 British mothers found that 1 in 6 planned to start a business during their maternity leave. Women started 1,821 businesses a day between 2017 and 2018, according to American Express’ recent State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, and almost half (47%) were launched by women of color. What’s more, women-owned businesses now employ 9.2 million people and generate $1.8 trillion in revenue. And many of these companies were cooked up between diaper changes.

The conference’s founder, fellow momtrepreneur Katie Hintz-Zambrano, told Moneyish that she launched In Good Company last year because she realized that her network was full of mothers who were either starting businesses and side hustles, or dreaming of doing so.

“A lot of my friends were dropping out of the more traditional workforce and starting companies because they had a surge of creativity after having a child, and they saw a void in the market,” said Hintz-Zambrano, 35. “And I think it’s a perfect storm of women going back to work, and realizing this is not flexible. And especially millennial women and Gen X women, we are passionate about our careers, but we are also passionate about parenthood, but the modern workplace doesn’t give you that flexibility to be the present parent that you want to be.”

And she’s speaking from experience. After working as a journalist for more than a decade, including heading Refinery29’s San Francisco section, she was inspired to co-launch Mothermag.com (a full-service parenting site that also reports on stylish but practical fashion for moms) with fellow mother James Kicinski-McCoy in 2013 after having her son Diego, now 5.

That, in turn, inspired her to throw the first In Good Company conference last year, which featured speakers such as designer Clare Vivier and Moon Juice CEO Amanda Bacon discussing the nuances of motherhood and entrepreneurship. It drew more than 400 women, particularly millennials and Gen-Xers who are bringing up babies and businesses together -- although women without children are certainly welcome, as well.

“If you don’t have a child, you will still get something out of it. If you don’t own a business, you will still get something out of it,’ said Hintz-Zambrano. “It’s about hanging with inspiring women, and hearing inspiring stories and going deep on these topics that are all pretty universal.”

The inaugural In Good Company explored broader topics like finding work-life balance, motherhood and activism, as well as using social media to power business. But this year’s series of talks will take deeper dives into more specific, topical subjects, including: Diversity, inclusion and representation in business and in life; hitting the $1 million revenue mark (something only 2% of all female founders achieve); raising capital as a woman, let alone a pregnant woman or a woman of color; and the neurological link between motherhood and creativity.

“I believe inclusion is having its moment right now, because diversity of all aspects is a hot topic,” Amanda Booth, a model/actress and advocate whose son Micah, 4, has Down Syndrome -- and has become a baby model with an Instagram account (@lifewithmicah) that boasts 62.5K followers. She’s speaking on the diversity and inclusion panel.

“Inclusion is the most important to me, as it affects my son and his future,” added Booth, 32. “I’m so fortunate that the generations of parents before me have fought for inclusion in schools and the home, that we get to take it a step further and demand that our children be seen. Seen in the media, and advertising. So that children with disabilities are recognized by the masses. And when you recognize something, you feel like you know it, and it suddenly doesn’t seem so scary. And when things aren’t scary, you welcome them.”

And Hintz-Zambrano hopes this will inspire more connections and conversations once the event is over. “We want them to build communities offstage. We really encourage guests to make friends with people in the room, and exchange information, because that is so important,” she said. “This is such a powerful audience. These business owners make lot of important decisions, such as who they hire and what kind of models they use in their messaging and advertising. And they are also raising the next generation of humans. So speaking to them about topics as important as diversity and inclusion, and what real equity means … if you can plant the seeds there, in such a powerful group, that could grow into something amazing.”

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